'ARABELLA,' 'PEARL-FISHERS' DRAW FROM ALL OVER
Santa Fe Opera Enjoys a Unique Cachet
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By Paul Hertelendy
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of Aug. 6-13, 2012
Vol. 15, No. 6SANTA FE, NM---The
Santa Fe (summer) Opera offers prime voices that would be a credit to
any company anywhere, understandably drawing audiences both local and
out-of-state. And the ultra-dry 7,000-ft. altitude doesn't faze them in
the least.

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The
cognocenti come prepared for vagaries of weather---shirt-sleeves these
balmy
evenings, and wraps for the late-season chills. Sometimes an umbrella
too. The adventure
of the high-desert weather more than compensates for the frequently Spartan productions on stage. It all adds up to
the impetus of opera-going, which devotees consider an indispensable
ingredient
of the ritual..

Richard
Strauss's "Arabella" (1933) recaptured the glories of earlier
romanticism, reprising the spirit of "Rosenkavalier" of a generation
earlier, without quite matching the intoxicating melodiousness of
before. This
scene set in pre-World-War-One Vienna
is a social critique of the shallow Old-Guard families gone decadent,
unable to
cope with the changes, concerned only with their egos, clothes and
clubs, plus
the desire to marry off their daughters to some wealthy, socially
prominent
man. The one who captures the heart of daughter Arabella is a
nouveau-riche
outsider from Slavonia (Croatia)
who represents a contemporary vitality, but is saddled with a sense of
inferiority. The tale marks the end of an era: the decline of the old,
Arabella
giving up her "girlhood" to marry the outsider Mandryka, and the
silliness of dictates of convention in society. This is also a theme
that
speaks to our times.

The
ultimate excess of the family’s pretentions was
in dressing up Arabella's sister Zdenka as
a young man so as to focus all male attention on the other eligible
girl.

Strauss
quite clearly fell in love with his heroines, Arabella being glorified
as few
heroines on stage today. He (and his brilliant librettist Hofmannsthal)
idolized
the image of the perfect eligible virgin, surrounded by suitors,
unblemished by
innuendo, heroic on her own way.

The
mainstay was Mark Delevan playing Mandryka the outsider, showing the
robust
well-founded bass-baritone that has made him a formidable Wotan in
various
"Ring" cycles around the world. He showed the contrasting facets of
the swain: Inhibited before Arabella, confident with the father,
generous in his
spending, and totally cowed with the seeming infidelity of his fiancee.

Faced
with possible suicide of another swain who was spurned, Arabella's
sister
Zdenka plays the boyrole and gives the
latter the alleged key to Arabella's room, where Zdenka plays the
stand-in
under cover of darkness. (We will conveniently overlook the fact that
she is
about 6 inches shorter than the sister.) When the whole cast meets up
in the
lobby at midnight, every one is duped as well until Zdenka confesses to
her
ruse to save a man's life, and to save her sister's betrothal as well.
Just
like "Rosenkavalier," this plot was seen as pretty racy for the early
20th century.

The Canadian soprano Erin
Wall, heard at the S.F. Symphony in Beethoven’s Ninth in June, played
the title
role with a serviceable voice that finally opens up attractively above
the
staff, and did Arabella convincingly when heard Aug. 1. She was abetted
eloquently by mezzo Victoria
Livengood (Adelaide)
and the canary tones of Kiri Deonarine (Fiakermilli) reaching a
stratosphere even higher than the Sangre de Cristo Mountains looming
nearby. As is common in Strauss,
there are no serious tenor roles. With Sir Andrew Davis conducting, the
orchestra was sumptuous, playing with inspiration as if they were twice
the
number. Can any one pinpoint just where all the Davis
magic is coming from?

San
Francisco Opera devotees have a real treat in store in the upcoming
"Capulets
and Montagues," as the superb young lyric soprano Nicole Cabell
previewed
her talents in Bizet's "Pearl Fishers" here. There was not much to
praise about the show visually, with its skimpy, mishmash of sets and
superficial cultural fidelity to Ceylon. But when the Leila
of Ms.
Cabell launched into duets with the lover Nadir, the opera house came
resoundingly alive. Nadir was played by the spinto tenor Eric Cutler,
whom I
can readily visualize triumphing in the very sort of roles that the
young
Placido Domingo used to take on. The lyrical score of this opera of
course is
highly appealing, showing even influences of Verdi (in the act-two
finale). But
apart from a sterling chorus, and the conducting of Emmanuel Villaume,
there
was little else to recommend this opus. The melodies are soaring, but
the tale
is pure hokum, thin as a reed.

If
the Santa Fe
productions are often sparse, blame it on the
absence of overhead space to fly scenery
and make quick changes. All the sets have to be laboriously wheeled on
and off
the stage by stage-hands, who by this stage of the season must surely
be muscular
enough for the Olympics.